Lenovo to show Amazon Alexa healthcare applications at HIMSS17

A company executive discusses the innovative agreement with Amazon for virtual care.

Healthcare executives and HIT professionals need to consider ways to innovate in their use of technology in order to drive new models of care, said Tom Foley, director of worldwide health solutions strategy at Lenovo.

“The industry has been stuck on, ‘This is what my EHR vendor is saying and this is what I must do,’” Foley said. “In order to pivot and move to value-based care, healthcare organizations must think about what they need in their health system and adopt innovative technologies that can help drive change in the ways they need to deliver care. It’s time to pivot in health IT: How do we take more costs out of the system and become more innovative in the delivery of care in a more proactive way versus a more reactive way.”

One way Lenovo is attempting to innovate in healthcare is through an agreement with Amazon to use for healthcare purposes Amazon’s Alexa home voice-based communications system, Foley explained.

“This has to do with expanding the use of virtual care,” he said. “Our intelligent assistant platform combines Amazon’s Alexa with our own platform. We took Alexa and applied it to healthcare and we allow a patient to speak to Alexa to communicate with his or her care team. For example, ‘Hey, Alexa, can you tell my care coordinator I need a driver to pick me up.’ Or, ‘I need a prescription refilled.’ We’re expanding on the intelligent home to create an intelligent medical home.”

The Alexa integration goes beyond simple voice commands. If a patient decides to use wearable healthcare devices in the home, Lenovo can integrate those into the platform as well.

“I can say, ‘Hey, Alexa, take my blood pressure,’ and that can be recorded very easily,” Foley said. “It gets stored locally and can be sent to the health team. So that involves the whole virtual encounter, the telehealth scenario. You may need to be seen by a doctor, but you do not have to go to the doctor. Virtual care anywhere is a big theme for us.”

Lenovo executives will be discussing the Amazon Alexa integration and other newer developments in Booth 6170 at the HIMSS17 Conference & Exhibition in Orlando.

HIMSS17 runs from Feb. 19-23, 2017 at the Orange County Convention Center.

This article is part of our ongoing coverage of HIMSS17. Visit Destination HIMSS17 for previews, reporting live from the show floor and after the conference.